Summary of John Winton's The Forgotten Fleet

Everest Media

Description

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book.
Sample Book Insights:
#1 The attack on Force Z, which was the British battleship Prince of Wales, the battlecruiser Repulse, and four destroyers, was the end result of a train of unfortunate circumstances. By November 1944, when the British Pacific Fleet was formally in being, the United States Navy and Marine Corps had already won for the Allies nearly complete control of sea and air over most of the Pacific.
#2 The British Pacific and East Indies Fleets were a magnificent contribution by a nation 10,000 miles from the action who had already fought a war at sea for five years and over five oceans. But the American 3rd/5th and 7th Fleets were far larger and more powerful than both British fleets combined.
#3 The fall of Singapore was a dark and terrible episode for the Navy, but there were two gallant naval actions fought by Allied ships in the Java Sea on 27 and 28 February. Four cruisers and three destroyers were sunk in these actions.
#4 The Japanese raiders were Vice Admiral Nagumo’s formidable Striking Force, which included five of the six carriers that attacked Pearl Harbour. They attacked Colombo on Easter Sunday, 5 April, and sank the cruisers Cornwall and Dorsetshire.

Sujets

• Sciences appliquées
• Ingénierie
• Sciences appliquées
• Sciences appliquées
• Ingénierie
• Transportation
• Sciences et techniques
• Technology
• Engineering
• Civil
• Transport

Informations

• Publié par: Everest Media LLC
• Date de parution: 24 juillet 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9798822547216
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Insights on John Winton's The Forgotten Fleet
Contents Insights from Chapter 1 Insights from Chapter 2 Insights from Chapter 3 Insights from Chapter 4 Insights from Chapter 5 Insights from Chapter 6 Insights from Chapter 7 Insights from Chapter 8 Insights from Chapter 9 Insights from Chapter 10 Insights from Chapter 11
Insights from Chapter 1

#1

The attack on Force Z, which was the British battleship Prince of Wales, the battlecruiser Repulse, and four destroyers, was the end result of a train of unfortunate circumstances. By November 1944, when the British Pacific Fleet was formally in being, the United States Navy and Marine Corps had already won for the Allies nearly complete control of sea and air over most of the Pacific.

#2

The British Pacific and East Indies Fleets were a magnificent contribution by a nation 10,000 miles from the action who had already fought a war at sea for five years and over five oceans. But the American 3rd/5th and 7th Fleets were far larger and more powerful than both British fleets combined.

#3

The fall of Singapore was a dark and terrible episode for the Navy, but there were two gallant naval actions fought by Allied ships in the Java Sea on 27 and 28 February. Four cruisers and three destroyers were sunk in these actions.

#4

The Japanese raiders were Vice Admiral Nagumo’s formidable Striking Force, which included five of the six carriers that attacked Pearl Harbour. They attacked Colombo on Easter Sunday, 5 April, and sank the cruisers Cornwall and Dorsetshire.

#5

The Japanese had a choice of offensive strategies. They could strike in the west and invade southern India, or they could move south and invade Australia. The third choice was to strike in the east and destroy the American fleet.

#6

The Battle of the Coral Sea was the first naval engagement in history between aircraft carriers. The Japanese had seemingly gained another victory, but the strategically important defeat of the Port Moresby invasion force proved that their expansion in the Far East had been halted.

#7

The Battle of Midway was the turning point of the war in the Pacific. It was the Japanese Navy’s first clear defeat since the Korean Admiral Yi Sun Sin in his Kwi-Sun Tortoise ship sank 120 Japanese ships by fire and ram in 1592.

#8

The Battle of Savo Island was a defeat for the Allies comparable to the Italian fleet at Matapan. It also dispelled the legend that the Japanese were a myopic race with poor night vision.

#9

The battle for Guadalcanal was a race by both sides to build up their resources on the island. The sea-lights off Guadalcanal, when both sides sought to interrupt the flow of the other’s reinforcements, made some of the most stirring history of World War Two at sea.

#10

The Allied advance on Rabaul was sustained on two fronts in 1943 and was hastened by a brilliant success for Allied aircraft in the Battle of the Bismarck Sea. In the three days from 2 to 4 March 1943, bombers of the US Army and Royal Australian air forces attacked a Japanese convoy, sinking four escorting destroyers and all the eight troop transports carrying an entire infantry division.

#11

The evolution, in 1943 and 1944, of the Allies’ strategy for the Far East was a long and a tortuous process. The disagreements between the Prime Minister and his Chiefs of Staff on the definition of the British role in the strategy became a dialogue of an almost Japanese complexity.

#12

The British Chiefs of Staff came away from the conference with the British future in the Pacific settled. They were eager to get to work. However, Mr Churchill disagreed with them, believing that the center of British strategy should be in the Indian Ocean and that the Philippines should be recaptured by force of British arms.

#13

The Central Pacific strategy was favored by Admiral Nimitz and his staff, and it was also favored by Admirals King and Leahy on the Joint Chiefs of Staff committee. The plan was to capture the Marianas, Carolines, and Palaus, and to complete the isolation of Rabaul and Hollandia in New Guinea.

#14

The American and British leaders had many disagreements about the disposition of forces and the future in South-east Asia. The American leaders were skeptical about the figures agreed for CULVERIN, and they wanted to use all the resources in the area in a bold execution of the Indian Ocean strategy.

#15

The British Chiefs of Staff and the American Joint Chiefs of Staff were still debating the final British strategy for the Far East in June 1943. The US Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Nimitz, and General MacArthur were occupied with more mundane matters of actually progressing the war in the Pacific.

#16

The Fifth Fleet, led by Rear Admiral Richmond Turner, was responsible for sealing off a target atoll from all enemy interference while the landings were taking place. The fleet began the Atoll War with landings in the Gilbert Islands on 20 November 1943.

#17

The loss of the important atolls in the Gilberts and the Marshalls, and the progress being made by General MacArthur’s forces in New Guinea, finally forced the Japanese High Command to abandon the outer defensive line and set up a new inner line running from the Marianas to western New Guinea.

#18

The first Battle of the Philippine Sea, on 19 and 20 June 1944, was the last and greatest of the Pacific carrier battles. It was arguably Admiral Spruance’s finest action. His orders were specifically and solely to ‘capture, occupy, and defend Saipan, Tinian, and Guam.

#19

The dispute between the proponents of MacArthur’s Army and Nimitz’s Navy strategy reached its bitterest stage in 1944. The final shape of the assault on Japan was still undecided by the time of the Octagon Conference at Quebec in September.

#20

By 1944, Great Britain had passed her peak in terms of war production and man-power. The country could physically produce no more. The British fleet must not be relegated to a minor role as an Empire Task Force in South-west Pacific operations under General MacArthur’s command.
Insights from Chapter 2

#1

In 1944, the Eastern Fleet began to receive reinforcements. In January, 146 ships were planned to be sent to the fleet in the next four months. On 27 January Vice Admiral Sir Arthur Power, commanding the First Battle Squadron and Flag Officer Second in Command, Eastern Fleet, arrived in Ceylon with the battle-cruiser Renown, the battleships Valiant and Queen Elizabeth, the fleet aircraft carrier Illustrious, and the repair carrier Unicom.

#2

In September, the Third Fleet carried out strikes on the central Philippine islands. The Japanese defense was weak because they were planning a withdrawal of their resources. The Allies bypassed Yap and landed unopposed on Morotai.

#3

The loss of the Philippines would effectively cut off the Japanese home islands from the resources of the Dutch East Indies and Malaya. The Japanese had anticipated the attack and prepared a plan for the defense of the Philippines, which called for both a complicated command structure and the use of a decoy.

#4

The Battle of Leyte Gulf, which was the culmination of the Japanese invasion of the Philippines, ended the effectiveness of the Japanese fleet at sea. In the four days of action from 23 to 26 October, they had lost three battleships, four carriers, ten cruisers, and nine destroyers.

#5

The British Pacific Fleet, under the command of Admiral Fraser, faced immense and unprecedented difficulties. His responsibilities were extremely complex: he was responsible for the conduct of the fleet, but also for fleet operations, supply, and shore support.

#6

The British Pacific Fleet was led by Vice Admiral Sir Bernard Rawlings, who was chosen to lead the fleet at sea. He was a Cornishman, tall, spare, and very alert. He had vision and a quick mind.

#7

Sir Bernard Rawlings was a man of wide interests, but no hobbies in the conventional sense. He had a weakness for songs, played to piano and accordion accompaniment late at night, usually in the company of his American Liaison Officer, Captain E. C. Ewen.

#8

The Mediterranean in 1941 was the supreme period of trial for Admiral Rawlings’s career. He gave all he had. When Admiral Cunningham was considering the appointment of the Second in Command, British Pacific Fleet, he suggested Rawlings to Admiral Fraser.

#9

The officer who was chosen to command the aircraft carrier squadron was Admiral Philip Vian. He was a great fighting admiral, and he thrived in action. He did not care about establishing good relations with the Americans.

#10

The BPF was a truly representative Commonwealth fleet. Two cruisers, Gambia and Achilles, were manned by New Zealanders. The 7th Destroyer Flotilla was part of the 4th Flotilla, and many of the minesweeper escorts for the Fleet Train were Australian.

#11

The BPF was made up of reserve officers and men, who overwhelmingly outnumbered the regular RN in every ship. The fleet shared with the Prime Minister the belief that they must continue fighting until the last enemy was defeated.

#12

The British Pacific Fleet was a fast, heavily armed, balanced force of capital ships and aircraft carriers, screened by cruisers and destroyers. The pre-war planning and design of British naval aircraft was a sorry tale of indecision and inter-service squabbling between the Navy and the Royal Air Force.

#13

The British carrier operations in the Far East featured the long-lasting love-hate relationship between the fleet and the Seafire.